Two City of Miami firefighters convicted of mortgage fraud yet two drastically different sentences...

Perhaps a strange coincidence or possibly something else going on?  Two veteran City of Miami firefighters engaged in massive mortgage fraud conspiracies, former assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur and firefighter Thomas Thelusma, both federally indicted.  Ms. Arthur goes to trial and loses while Mr. Thelusma decides to cut a deal with the government.  While Ms Arthur's mortgage fraud scheme was far greater than Mr. Thelusma's, there seems to be some disparity in their sentences.


As we discussed back in March, Ms Arthur was able to get away without paying back a single dollar to the banks that she defrauded, in case you missed it, here's her restitution order again...

Veldora Arthur Restitution Order

Rather shocking isn't it?  Despite having defrauded several banks out of millions of dollars, somehow Ms Arthur doesn't have to pay them back?!  No restitution whatsoever!  That's all well and good till one of our readers left us this comment last week...

Thomas Thelusma was sentenced and ordered to pay $1,035,000.00 for restitution! That must be some good ***** she has. Did she **** and **** everyone?? 

HUH?  How the hell could that be?  I pulled up Mr. Thelusma's sentencing order and found the following...

Thomas Thelusma Judgement

As I expected, Mr. Thelusma has to pay back the banks that he defrauded to the tune of $1,035,000!

I don't get it, every other convicted mortgage fraudster that we've written about has had to pay the banks they ripped off back.  Joe Guaracino from the Plantation Cops case has to pay the banks back upwards of three million, John Romney from the Bernardo Barrera case, over half a million, etc.  


You have to ask how the hell did Veldora Arthur get away without having to pay the banks back while these other guys are going to be saddled with this debt for the rest of their lives?